


Joint Effort

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Birthday Party, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team pulls together for a special event</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joint Effort

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in JLA:Year One, which is now out of continuity.

The woman looked up from her ledgers at feeling the light contact of a teammate in her mind.

{I have learned the date,} Martian Manhunter told Dinah Lance as she worked in her florist shop.

{Oh? Then we can plan for it, right?}

{It is in two days.}

{TWO DAYS!!!!} She sat bolt upright on her stool, and looked around her shop. {I don't have the right decorations!}

{Can you acquire those, and I will have the others do other tasks?} Martian Manhunter asked her.

{I'm on it.} She would darn well figure out what was appropriate and have them at the headquarters on time.

`~`~`~`~`

"Two days." The blond took a deep breath and sighed. "How hard is it to bake a cake in two days? Okay, so maybe I don't cook that often, but still..."

Barry pulled another cookbook closer, and started flipping through it, reading all the beginner’s advice and trying to commit it to memory. This cake had to be perfect. Which meant not setting the book on fire by flipping through it too fast, he cautioned himself.

`~`~`~`~`

Hal flashed a suave grin at the beauty in his life, shaking his head. "Doesn't work for me, Carol. Got other plans that day."

"Hal, this is your job!"

"Yeah? Well, next time, think about telling them to have it ready on the day I'm scheduled, not on my days off," he said, before walking out of the office, knowing she was fuming. Of course, she'd still wait for him to fly it; it was too important for her not to. Now he just had to find the present J'onn had shown him.

`~`~`~`~`

Arthur arrived at the cave to find he was first. J'onn's summons had made it seem critical, so the empty cave made him frown. He shook off the water at the entrance before proceeding inside, his eyes adjusting from the sudden bright of the surface to the dimmer interior of the cave...and then he was nearly blinded again as the lights came up to half intensity suddenly.

"Happy Birthday!" the voices of his four teammates told him, rushing to crowd around him. He looked as his eyes cleared, and saw the walls had been done in sea-green and blue streamers, a banner was hung wishing him happy birthday, and a cake that looked vaguely as if it should be a waterscape was on the table, its candles waiting to be lit. A single poorly-wrapped present was beside the cake, and all of his teammates were smiling at him.

"I...I haven't celebrated a birthday since my father went missing," he said softly, not even seeing the imperfections in the cake or the gift's wrapping for the crushing emotion swelling in his chest. Black Canary leaned in and kissed his cheek, so light a peck he might have missed it but for the fact she lingered.

"J'onn figured out the date you thought of as yours..." she said.

"It's been on your mind a lot, my friend," J'onn hastened to add, as he would never go digging below the public thoughts.

"I made the cake...sorry it's not all fancy," Flash said.

"The Birdie decorated and that left me with finding your present," Lantern said. "Open it...J'onn's idea."

Arthur took the package, trying to not be rough and clumsy as he tore at the paper, pushing it away to reveal one of the surface dweller water-globes. This one had a lighthouse, one that looked so much like the one he had grown up at, perched on the globe that had dolphins and other sea creatures floating within it.

"I have no words," he said, probably too soft to be heard, but it was understood. His male teammates patted him on the back, and Canary hugged him before pointing at the cake.

"We're skipping the candles, so pretend we lit them and blew them out."

"Only fair," he admitted, with a smile at the Martian Manhunter, who nodded in appreciation.

"Let's eat!" Flash declared.


End file.
